I had ordered my Phantom because I was spending too much money on paint using semi-automatic markers, and maintaining them was expensive too. Not to mention you need hoppers, tanks, and lots of paint and more gear, and all that crap is expensive and weighs you down. So, I decided I was going for a pump marker, and I had to look no further than the Phantom.

I ordered this from Wevo, for $211.97 with a trigger shoe. It came packaged neatly in a white box with it sitting on a layer of foam, and a layer of foam sitting on it. Came with a manual, the velocity adjustment tool, spare parts kit, and Wevo's business card. If you're ordering a pump marker order it from Wevo. I thought the manual could have been a little better, but it is informative.

This is easily one of the best markers I've ever shot. Even with crappy Diablo Heat paint that doesn't fit the bore correctly it was still ball on ball accurate. It's light too, and balanced. Easy to manuver, snap shooting is very easy now as is running and diving and sliding. It is very efficent, mine's not broken in yet and I got 38 shots off of a 12g cartridge, and it will only get better. I have broken it in fully now and I saw an amazing 51 shots at 270 FPS! Maintenance is easy, which you don't have to do often. You don't need any tools to gain access to the bolt and hammer and main spring, and you only have to put a small drop of oil on each part like every month. If you over-oil it you will get horrible velocity fluctuations as I have found the hard way, and when I say bad I mean 200 +/- FPS. So, uh, don't soak the hammer and bolt in oil, and you'll be getting very consistent readings. I cleaned them off, only used very little oil, and now I'm getting 8 +/- FPS, pretty good for a un-regulated marker running on Co2 that isn't broken in yet. The pump stroke is nice and smooth, but takes a while to get very smooth, stupid break-in period. Plus, nothing beats that feeling of totally owning the rich kid with the ramping PMR, actually, that's what happened the first day I played with it. :) Last, Mike's support is great. I had lost two detent rings when I was playing, and I sent him an e-mail if it were possible to get the two I lost invdividually, and while I was expecting to pay $3.00 including shipping, he sent them out to me free of charge! I'm definitely recommending Phantoms every chance I can now, and I also plan on not breaking/losing anything else. It's service like what Mike delivers that keeps the players coming back, and instead of caring about gaining a few extra bucks, he'd rather have you think that he's a great guy and give you the parts.

As for upgrades, they're not needed, all you really need is detent rings (seriously, you NEED them), but you can get upgrades for preference. You can get things like .45 grips (although I like the M-16), L and T-stocks, undercocking kits, colored parts, ghost rings and other sights, different air configurations, different body configurations, barrels even (unless if you want a barrel kit because you use a lot of different paint, just choose the right detent ring and use the stock one, it's perfect), and you get get different length feedtubes, so you can basically turn this gun into whatever you want it to be. Want the smallest setup possible? Get a 6" barrel, 2.5" pump arm, and a dropout changer. Want to run the best open class setup? Get a .45 grip, T-stock, 22ci/3,000psi HPA tank, a VSC kit, and run the bottomline to the ASA on the gun. Is the black color getting boring? Get some colored acrylic parts. Want just the best stock gun? Well, for that, you don't need to do anything if you buy this beauty, it's perfect stock.

The only weakness in this gun is the long break-in period. If you have a full 20oz. tank, and a 3/8" allen wrench to remove the 12g changer adapter thingar, screw the 20oz. tank into the ASA, and dry fire until the tank runs dry. It may take a while, but this will break it in pretty well. Otherwise you will see less than satisfactory performance. My first two times with it at the field I was seeing velocity fluctuations and my pump stroke was very stiff. I had my 20oz. still filled, I did that, and when I came back to the field for the third time I was seeing 6+/- FPS for consistency, and my pump stroke is very smooth and quick now.

Conclusion:

If you're wanting to play SC pump, look no further than the Phantom. It's an awesome perfomer, and the price is right. I was annoyed that it was $211.97 for a pump, I thought it should only be $150, but as soon as I held it I knew I was wrong. If you're looking to play open class I would say get a Sniper, but for SC play, you'll need no other marker. Absolutely perfect, great job Mike and the guys at Wevo. Light, efficent, accurate, fairly quiet for a HP marker, balanced, customizeable, ease of maintenance, great gun!